Municipal Council Condemns Violence in Mea Shearim

The Municipal Council condemned last night the violence in the Mea Shearim quarter on Saturday launched by religious zealots against buses of the Egged cooperative. Seven people, including three policemen and a Journalist were injured when hundreds of Orthodox militants rioted again in protest against buses traveling on the Sabbath. Egged, the country’s largest bus cooperative, operates special buses for tourists here on the Sabbath, a practice objected to by the Orthodox. The rioting occurred after the Sabbath was over, when Egged’s buses had resumed their normal schedules. Buses entering Mea Shearim, the Orthodox section of the city, were pelted with stones, and most of those injured were hurt by glass splinters from shattered windshields. Police said the journalist was hit by a stone aimed at a policeman. A sizeable police detail dispersed 500 of the rioters who had gathered in a central square in Mea Shearim. Members of the Poalei Agudat Party in the Municipal Council and their colleagues of Agudat Israel joined in the condemnation of the rioters. One of the latter said the entering of yeshivot by policemen had had an impact on the Orthodox similar to that of a pogrom.